STUDENTS in Wales are more worried about finding employment after graduation than students in any other area, according to the latest survey of student lifestyles.

STUDENTS in Wales are more worried about finding employment after graduation than students in any other area, according to the latest survey of student lifestyles.

They are also the most worried about balancing academic, work and social commitments, about personal pressure to succeed and about managing a heavy university workload.

Students in Wales do however, feel safer than students anywhere else in the UK, giving them one less thing to worry about.

Other key findings for Wales include:

The highest proportion, 70%, of students rely on student loans;

More students in Wales (35%) have a full-time holiday job than anywhere else in the UK;

More than two-thirds of students in Wales try to eat healthily but don't let it dictate their lives. This was largest proportion out of all the regions;

Fewer students in Wales live at home with their parents or family (13%) compared to the national figure of 25%.

This is the first time that such a comprehensive study has been undertaken. It sets out to identify issues and track the changes in key non-academic areas of university lifestyle as an undergraduate students.

The national findings reveal that gone is the carefree image of life as an undergraduate. Today's students are hounded by worries, and not simply about debt, the research by Sodexho, the UK's leading catering and support services company has revealed.

Students worry most about what class of degree they will get, knowing this will be the key to opening the door to employment.

And they fret next about work - not the fear of doing it after three years of lectures, but the fear of finding a job.

With just 20,000 plum graduate jobs for the annual flood of 2.1 million newly qualified students, competition for the best places is fierce.

Debt comes just third on their list of concerns, according to The University Lifestyle Survey 2004.

Today's students also rely heavily on their parents, who are bearing part of the burden of reform in university tuition fees.

One in four of British students choose a university that allows them to live at home, even if they have to travel a significant distance to get there, although just over one in 10 do the same in Wales.

Half of students say they receive handouts from their mothers and fathers, and for one in five, parents are the main source of income.

Ten per cent fund their studies purely with part-time work, says the survey. A third of students who work during term time, do more than 16 hours work a week.

Peter Taylor, head of universities for Sodexho, said, "This is the first survey which looks at what motivates students, what they worry about and how they live their lives.

"It debunks the commonly held misconception that they are solely worried about debt.

Yes it is a concern, but students seem resigned to it. They are much more worried about what life holds for them when they leave university.

"This makes it imperative that while they are at university everything that can be done for them to make their lives better, should be done. We are helping universities to make sure that happens."

Other findings include:

Most students spend less than nine hours asleep each day. Just 19% say they spend more than nine hours in bed in each 24-hour period;

47% of students put vacuuming top when asked which cleaning services they would like provided in their halls of residence, second was cleaning the sink (43%) and third emptying the bin (29%);

Men were more likely than women to want each of these services. Surprisingly perhaps, a third of all students said no cleaning services should be provided.

Sodexho, which supplies a range of services to universities and colleges, carried out its research in association with The Times Higher Education Supplement and 2,022 students were questioned at 30 universities in the UK.